Friday, April 6, 2018

Happy April! This month is particularly (and I mean insanely,
outrageously, horribly) busy for us as multiple client projects come due
and we also are working on a preview build of Lifeless Moon to submit
for PAX West in August. The dust will clear a little in May, but until
then we're just trying to stay sane.

Here's a quick look at the
astronaut notebook we're building for Lifeless Moon. This notebook will
contain log entries, documents, mission objectives, and scientific notes
based on your discoveries.

The notebook is being modeled after the actual Apollo mission "cuff
checklists" used on the moon. We're even using the exact font used in
the original:

We've also been working on a new jetpack mechanic. Lifeless Planet's
jetpack was...unique, and we were never 100% happy with it. In Lifeless
Moon, the jetpack you'll find has a more traditional "jetpack" feel. It
also allows more control in platforming without providing access to the
entire gameplay area. That last point is important because we feel like
something is lost in regards to story if you can simply jetpack up and
over any obstacle. In Lifeless Planet we addressed this by only enabling
"boost" from fuel canisters in certain areas. This felt a bit forced at
times, so we're hopeful the revised jetpack for Lifeless Moon will be a
big improvement all around.

Short update this time, but have to get back to work. Next month we'll have more progress to show with some new screens!

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Well, March 1st so time for another update, I guess! Goodness, despite
my best intentions, it seems we can't seem to get an update out more
than once a month so far. We'll keep working on that...

Preview Build

Our beta tester backers
have been reviewing the first preview build the last couple of weeks
here. If you're a beta tester and haven't reviewed the build, do it
soon! We'll end access to the preview Friday next week. Thank you to
everyone who's provided feedback. It's truly very helpful!

Project Status

Yesterday
was a big day: I played the game on Vive, then Oculus and then non-VR
with keyboard/mouse and gamepad and they all worked great (mostly!). We
still have work to do on the core code, but this is a big step to being
able to make this game playable in both VR and non-VR. I've handed the
project off to Jazon to work his magic and finish converting the legacy
JavaScript code to C#.
We here at Stage 2 central are turning now
to building out the environments and puzzles for the rest of the game.
We're focusing on the first half of the game and we may make that
available sooner than later (but still for one price for everybody--none
of that episodic, DLC nonsense). As usual, these things take longer to
develop than we hope, so if we can get it to you sooner this way, we
will...more on that later.

Still Hiring

We're still looking to add a Unity programmer, so if you or someone you know is interested in joining the team, check it out: http://stage2studios.com/jobs/

And
that's it for now. I'm SUPER excited about what we're going to be
working on in March... Much of the work up to now wasn't very visual so
it was harder to show WIP. That will change going forward, so look for
more updates soon.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

February 1st. How did that happen?! As usual, the time is flying by, but that's life in the fast lane, I guess. Thankfully, we have made some good headway since the last update.

Multiple Game Modes

Work on the back-end continues. We're trying to make this game playable (and fun) in VR and also without VR. One thing we discovered is that the "epic/cinematic" camera mode we're using in VR also looks really cool without VR. And we also learned that some people still get dizzy even with slow camera movements. So, we've decided to offer multiple camera modes in both VR and non-VR modes. This has meant a lot of time to make the game code aware of what the heck it's dealing with (VR headset? Monitor? Game controller? VR touch controller? Keyboard and mouse?...) There are a ton of moving parts, but this stuff has to be dealt with up-front or we'll have a huge mess on our hands later.

One cool thing we landed on was a cursor design for when in non-VR mode so you know what objects are interactive. We didn't want a cross-hair style reticle, and then we realized (Logan's suggestion iirc) we could use the Lifeless Moon logo. Notice how it changes when you roll over an interactive object:

Visual Effects Work

It's always hard to show progress without some sense of mild spoilers. Without too much discussion here, let me say we are working on some interesting visual effects for the game. They're proving challenging, but that's because we're doing something new and I'm excited at how this will pan out. Here's an early test render of one of the animated models we're working on:

Thanks as always for your support and especially for your patience! We're stretched thin most days but rest assured we're working hard to bring this project to life.

Friday, January 5, 2018

Happy New Year from Lifeless Moon!

Well as usually happens, I can't believe it's been so long since the last update. Definitely overdue. The truth is, work is progressing, but slowly. The holidays got in the way of course, but the biggest issue is client work. Our largest client has been keeping us extra busy the last two months. We have to take the work to pay the bills, but it cuts into dev time.

So at long last we've decided to hire an additional programmer. Without another team member we're just not going to be able to pick up the pace. Thankfully, we have the capacity to hire. And since you guys are our strongest supporters, we wanted to let you be the first to know about this opportunity. If you or a friend have experience with Unity game programming, please reach out and let's talk! We'll be very selective and careful with this hire, but that's why we're coming to you: we want somebody on the team who believes in the Stage 2 mission of creating awesome science-themed apps and games. Please check out the link if you are interested: http://stage2studios.com/jobs/

Progress Update

We're in the process of re-working the code so A.) the character control is more refined and B.) the code is all moved over from javascript (aka UnityScript) to C#. Lifeless Planet was built entirely (almost) with javascript and we've since learned there are a great many shortcomings with that language. It's really a kind of Franken-code, borrowing a bit from javascript, but other parts from C# and generally just being a pain to write clean and reliable code.

In addition to the programming side of things, Logan continues to make good headway on the art side. He's got a lot more 3D models built for the world and I'm excited to add the interaction that will bring them to life.

We've also made some good headway on puzzle design and also the full game "walk-through" doc that we're using to set up the pacing and refine the story and flow of the game.

I promise we won't wait so long for the next update and we'll share a peek at what's coming.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

This is an exciting day for fans of Lifeless Planet and science fiction. Be one of the first to see the announce trailer for our next indie adventure! We're still early in development, but we couldn't wait to share what we're working on. Play the video above, check out these screenshots below, learn more about the game, sign up for updates, and watch this site for future announcements.